Estoire d’Atile en Ytaire

Likely deriving from a Latin antecedent found in a manuscript in Verona, the Estoire d’Atile en Ytaire – also known as the Livre d’Attila or Attila en prose – chronicles the early medieval struggles of Italians cities and lordships against the Huns, but recasts this war in stark Christian terms. The text opens with the dispersion of the Apostles and, consequently, Christianity throughout the world. After recounting the conversion of Constantine and the discovery of the true cross by his wife Helena, the text moves to the legendary birth of Attila, the hun warrior king who kills King Menapieus of Aquileia and then begins despoiling the lands of Italy. Resistance to the Huns eventually forms around the king of Padua, who defeats Attila and his armies. In the later fourteenth century, this text was used as a source by Nicola da Casola for his romance of Attila’s deeds, La Guerra de Attila.

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